How chatbots are addressing summer melt for colleges

By Contributor

January 17th, 2017

AdmitHub raises $2.95 million in seed funding to build conversational AI chatbots for college success.

AdmitHub, an edtech startup which builds conversational artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to guide students on the path to and through college, has raised $2.95 million in seed funding. The funding round was co-led by Relay Ventures and Reach Capital, with participation from University Ventures and others. The new funding will be used by AdmitHub to grow its team of AI engineers and build out its sales team, with the goal of expanding its technology platform and scaling its reach to more colleges in the U.S. and abroad.

AdmitHub’s conversational AI platform will be used by colleges to support students with 24/7 engagement and expert advising. AdmitHub’s virtual assistants reach students via the medium this millennial generation uses most: chat. Students receive important reminders, supportive guidance, and answers to thousands of questions via text message or Facebook Messenger. Because AdmitHub’s virtual assistants are capable of handling the vast majority of messages, counselors are liberated to support students that most require their attention.

“The medium for this generation is messaging,” noted Andrew Magliozzi, CEO and co-founder of AdmitHub. “A nudge can incite action, but a conversation can transform a student’s mindset. With our latest updates, AdmitHub’s conversational AI can now provide all students with access to expert college advising via text message or Facebook Messenger.”

AdmitHub already has a diverse group of college partners spanning the breadth of higher education, from large public universities like Georgia State University, West Texas A&M University, and Bowling Green State University, to small liberal arts colleges like Allegheny College and The Cooper Union.

“To us, AdmitHub is not just a platform, it’s a solution,” says Scott Burke, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions at Georgia State. “They are a true partner who’ve radically exceeded our expectations. To handle more than 185,000 messages with 3,600 students without AdmitHub would have required us to hire at least ten full-time staff members. It is also extremely rare to see such significant impact in the first year of implementing any product.”

College partners using AdmitHub generally realize three primary benefits: 1) students receive on-demand access to college counseling; 2) admissions officers enjoy greater insight into student progress; and, 3) counselors have more time to focus on students most in-need of personal attention.